African Ancestored Genealogy

Comment

Comment by Shannon Stewart Christmas on October 13, 2011 at 9:53am

23andMe's Relative Finder results can be very informative. Using my results, I was able to identify ancestral origins and communicate with living relatives from my ancestral homelands outside of the US. I also used my results, in conjunction with traditional genealogy tools, to identify a previously unknown (or unacknowledged) maternal great-great-great-grandfather and to discover a new line of descent on my paternal side. These are breakthroughs that Y-chromosome DNA analysis and mitochondrial DNA analysis could not have produced for me because these discoveries did not involve matrilineal (mtDNA) or patrilineal (Y-DNA) ancestors.

African-Americans and others who struggle with a lack of documentation can reap many genealogical rewards from autosomal DNA analysis, rewards that unilineal DNA analyses, by virtue of their limited scope, cannot yield.

Comment by Art Thomas on October 13, 2011 at 6:23am

Hi Bev,

Your comment "Quite frankly I'm sorry I brought it up . It won't happen again!!!!! brought a smile to my face. Reasons for DNA testing and the subsquent results are all over the place and can be quite confusing.

I tested, Y-DNA & mtDNA initially in 2004, in an attempt to prove/disprove oral history of "direct line" 'European ancestry. When my results from FTDNA came back with both paternal (I1d1) & maternal (H3) haplogroups as European I then wondered about my obvious African ancestry. At that time (2005) AncestryByDNA was one of the few companies doing Biogeographical Admixture (BGA) or autosomal testing. My admixture came back 49% Euro, 48% African & 3% NA.... nothing more, nothing less, no country, no tribe, no ethnic group, just the stated percentages.

Fast Forward to 2011 and now we have from FTDNA their Population Finder/Family Finder matches and from 23andme their Ancestral Painting/Relative Finder which are their BGA/Autosomal DNA testing processes with resultant comparitive matches with their other testees. Still nothing but percentages of ethnic genetic compostion. They both fall within +/- 3-5 % of the breakouts reported in 2005 by AncestryByDNA.

IN 2011 with FTDNA doing their Family Finder and 23andme doing the Relative Finder autosmal testing I'm basically no further than I was in 2005. I now just have "matches" from their respective testees at the 3-5th cousin range, with names, who I can contact, or they can contact me, to determine if we have a genealogical connection.

 

So, for me, DNA testing while interesting, hasn't really helped me that much from the initial results of 2004-2005. Traditional genealogy and family history research methodologies have taken me, in some cases, beyond the 3-5th cousin range with more certainty and defintely more enjoyment.

I'm glad you brought it up. :))

Art

 

 

 

 

Comment by Beverly J Gray on October 13, 2011 at 5:53am

 Thanks Eric for the explanation. Your info only underscores what I thought from the beginning. .... and why I ask the question in the first place.

Comment by Eric Thomas on October 13, 2011 at 12:23am

Beverly,

 

I agree with Shannon. As you suspected, autosomal DNA testing does not point you to specific ancestors or relatives.Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA do NOT recombine from generation-to-generation the way autosomal DNA does. That's why Y-DNA and mtDNA can be used more exactingly. Because autosomal DNA gets shuffled between each generation in (what we can best determine) a totally random way, explains how one sibling can have European markers while another sibling may have Native American markers, even though both siblings have exactly the same two parents. Interestingly, the December, 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine has an article on using autosomal DNA testing for genealogical purposes, and the article couldn't have confused this issue more, for many people. I suppose, the best way to use DNA testing (at this point) is to use autosomal makers for "CLUES" and Y-DNA and mtDNA markers for "SPECIFICS" where genealogical research is concerned. I would also add, be wary that autosomal markers may NOT always explain ethnicity or even geographical derivations because of the nature of how that DNA is recombined from generation-to-generation and individual-to-individual.

Comment by Anita Wills on October 12, 2011 at 11:32pm

Shannon,

Thanks for breaking it down.

 

Comment by Shannon Stewart Christmas on October 12, 2011 at 10:46pm

Beverly,

Tracing connections via autosomal DNA is less straightforward then using unilineal markers (Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA). I have used 23andMe, an autosomal DNA product, for the past year. 23andMe pinpoints matching segments of DNA indicative of common ancestry to connect relatives and predict the level of kinship. Individuals sharing matching DNA compare family trees and ancestral locations to identify their common ancestors, the individuals from whom they inherited the shared DNA. For instance, a known paternal 4th cousin of mine recently joined 23andMe and matches my father, my grandfather, and myself on a specific section of Chromosome 3. Because we know the most recent common ancestors my 4th cousin shares with us - a specific couple from 19th century Warren County, North Carolina - we can surmise that the shared DNA segment passed down from them. Anyone else who matches on that same exact DNA segment shares the same set of ancestors. In a nutshell, that is how autosomal DNA analysis works.

Comment by Anita Wills on October 12, 2011 at 10:17pm

Beverly,

You introduced information that I was not aware of and I appreciate your efforts. I am going to check into having the autosomal test.

 

 

 

 

Comment by Beverly J Gray on October 12, 2011 at 10:05pm

If you  read all four stories having to do with the John Huffer -Madison Hemings case, you will find that there was a definite  assertion of a DNA Autosomal  link to Madison stated by a genealogist. All four stories inculding the one posted by Ms. Christmas are available on line, so you can read them for yourself.

I wasn't interested in the Y-chomosome studies as I have been privy to that info since its release in 1998 by Dr. Foster and Nature Magazine because I was the Ohio conslutant for the  Monticello Getting Word Oral History Project. Much has been written about  Y-chromosome results the  TJ descendant in that study was primarily Eston Hemings,(as outlined by Stewart-Christmas).

I was contacted by several members of of the Madison  line, as I have researched them for about 20 years, about the validity of Autosomal DNA and the current  news stories. I simply wanted to know if any one had any personal knowledge of this ethnic based test.

Quite frankly I'm sorry I brought it up . It won't happen again!!!!!

Comment by Shannon Stewart Christmas on October 12, 2011 at 9:33pm

To further clarify, in the Jefferson-Hemings case, the Y-chromosome DNA of Eston Hemings' great-great-grandson, John Weeks Jefferson, matched that of Field Jefferson's descendants, eliminating both of the Carr Brothers from the pool of potential paternity candidates for Eston Hemings; the 1998 DNA test confirms a Jefferson male fathered Eston Hemings.

 

Anita, I do know of Christmases residing in Pennsylvania.

Comment by Anita Wills on October 12, 2011 at 9:09pm

Shannon,

Thanks for the clarification. My mulatto lines are also from Virginia and connect to the Randolph's, one of whom married Jefferson's daughter. Many of the founding father's have mulatto children with their female slaves.

 

I notice your last name is Christmas. There was a Christmas family that we grew up with in Coatesville Pennsylvania. Do you have Christmas relatives from Pennsylvania?

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